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Using reviews for strategic advantage & to reduce risks

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An organisation’s ability to manage proposals increases as it adopts best practice. Reviews are used by best-in-class organisations to win business more effectively, efficiently and economically, with less risk. So how do reviews reduce risk?

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Effective reviews can help organisations win more business and reduce risks

Risk 1                    Investing resources in bids that you can’t win.

Evidence             Win rates are < 50%; you win smaller bids, but lose bigger ones; morale is low.

Solution               Develop an effective bid qualification process and implement ruthlessly.

Risk 2                    Failing to develop a compelling win strategy.

Evidence             Your proposal doesn’t make it clear why the prospect should choose you, in fact, it could have come from any one of your competitors.

Solution               Develop a win strategy focused on the benefits that the prospect is seeking which your organisation is uniquely positioned to deliver.

Risk 3                    Ignoring strengths, strategies & capabilities of competitors.

Evidence             Competitors are regularly winning business that you are better placed to fulfil and should be winning.

Solution               Recognise how the prospect perceives the strengths & potential strategies of your competitors whilst subtly drawing attention to their weaknesses.

Risk 4                    Failing to communicate the win strategy to all bid contributors.

Evidence             Extensive re-writing causes delays and frustration among contributors.

Solution               Ensure bid contributors are comprehensively briefed about strategy, win themes and responsibilities before writing commences.

Risk 5                    Presenting solutions based on features rather than benefits.

Evidence             Proposals, heavy on features, look similar to proposals for other prospects.

Solution               Ensure the proposal is benefit-focused, with a compelling win strategy that clearly addresses competitive issues.

Risk 6                    Underestimating the financial & operation risks of the proposal.

Evidence             Proposals make promises to prospects that the organisation cannot profitably execute or that exposes the organisation to unacceptable operational risks.

Solution               Examine assumptions underlying the prospect’s requirements, the execution of the solution, and costs to ensure an acceptable level of risk and profit.

Risk 7                    Submitting a proposal that lacks credibility.

Evidence             Proposal is submitted to prospect with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and inconsistent formatting.

Solution               Allow time for proof reading and editing.

Risk 8                    Not learning lessons from previous campaigns.

Evidence             Bid contributors repeat mistakes, processes are ad hoc and material is re-created from scratch. Client feedback is not used.

Solution               After submission, examine the process to ensure that it is effective and efficient. Use client feedback to enhance future proposals.

Proponents of best practice will recognise that, excluding the first which is Bid Qualification, these risks are mitigated by engaging the operational, technical and marketing teams to implement reviews.

You may have some of these reviews in place, or implement them in a different way. The same solution will not work for all organisations nor for every type and size of proposal. What’s important is knowing the quickest way to achieve the desired outcome.

If you want help with reviews, or any aspect of proposal management, we can show you the quickest way to make the biggest improvements; we call it, ‘taking the racing line’.

Ian Sherwood PPM.APMP – Bids & Proposals Director

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